| dc.description.abstract | This study had the objectives of determining the challenges of competition faced by local airlines in Kenya and establishing the competitive strategies adopted by local airlines in Kenya. The companies that made up the population for this study were fourteen out of which eight provided the responses used for the study through completing questionnaires. The findings indicated that main challenges that face local Kenyan airlines were the dominance of few competitors in the market, retaliation from competitors when an airline changes strategy, low cost services from competitors; price wars with competitors, strong brand name of competitors and wider branch networks of competitors. The least felt challenges were loss of customers to other airlines; competitors offering a wider range of services, the services offered by competitors being unique, loss of staff to competitors, challenges from the major customers and high costs of customers switching from a competitor to your airlines. The most used competitive strategies in response to the challenges were increased financing, big sales/price cuts, increasing presence in other countries, cost reduction, making the airline’s product different from those of others, coming up with new services and improving product quality. The study recommends that the airlines should use modern technology to reduce the dominance of the market by few firms and reduce negative effects of competition by venturing outside the Kenyan market. Further, policy makers in Kenya can take affirmative steps to strengthen these local airlines to enables them compete fairly against the stronger international airlines. | en |
